


isn't she wonderful

by afire



Series: truly the angel's best [2]
Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Hanahaki Disease, Mentions of Blood, Poetic Language, descriptions of coughing and hacking, have fun my dudes!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-09 18:34:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12282138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afire/pseuds/afire
Summary: Her dad is worried. Riley hasn't been sleeping and he can tell. She doesn't know how to tell him that Maya can't stop seeing purple and Riley can't stop seeing her."You alright?" he asks, hand coming to land on her shoulder.The tie he's wearing is purple, Riley almost screams.





	isn't she wonderful

**Author's Note:**

  * For [irritable](https://archiveofourown.org/users/irritable/gifts).



> **hanahaki disease (noun)**  
>  _a disease where the victim regurgitates and coughs up flower petals when they suffer from unrequited love_  
>   
> 
> (hover over flowers for meanings, will add them in end notes too)

What hurts the most is that Riley has absolutely no idea why it's happening.

She can barely look at the color purple anymore, it's gone from her room, gone from her life.

Except-

Maya grins tiredly at her, eyes fever-bright, movements sluggish as she monotonously brushes flowers away from her face.

And Riley aches.

 

**/**

 

"Riley, Riley, Riley."

Maya talks in her sleep, mumbling nonsensical things under her breath. The only word that she says properly is Riley's name, and it's always with a voice that's sad, and exhausted, and broken. She shifts, exhaling, and hyacinths float down to rest on her pillow, haloing her gorgeous, golden curls in dark purple.

"Riley, Riley, Riley.

The bunny nightlight that's sitting on the desk on the opposite side of the room flickers and, for a moment, they're plunged into darkness. Outside, the city lights blink like fireflies in the night. The clock strikes one somewhere in the house, and there are flower petals littering the floor.

"Riley, Riley, Riley."

 

**/**

 

Is it her fault? Is this her doing?

Every time she sees Maya, Riley is inexplicably wracked with guilt, the nausea pulling at her heartstrings.

She leans down, anxious, worried, _scared,_ fingers tapping incessantly against her bedspread, and tries to convince Maya to go see someone about it.

Beside her on the bed, her phone lights up with a call.

It's Lucas.

And Maya is heaving again, carnations falling from her mouth as she hunches over, coughs rattling in her chest.

Riley hits 'ignore' and slides off the bed, tears prickling at her eyes.

"I'm so _sorry,_ peaches."

 

**/**

 

Lucas comes through her window and Riley has to force her disappointment to remain on the inside, to not show on her face.

He asks if she wants to go get some coffee and Riley chokes on her anger, wonders if this is how Maya feels when the purple is clogging up her throat.

She wonders if this is how much it hurts.

Riley says no, fists clenched at her sides as he startles, and then climbs wordlessly back out the window.

Outside, spring has just arrived, and she can't bear to look.

 

**/**

 

Topanga's is a momentary relief. Maya is pressed into her side, safe, and warm, and alive. When she gets a glass of lemonade and actually finishes half of it, Riley can feel the relief in her bones.

The bell above the door jingles and Lucas walks in. Riley waves at him on instinct, forgetting that she's still mad at him, forgetting that the last time they spoke she'd turned him down.

Beside her, Maya stiffens, and Riley watches as Zay touches her on the shoulder, watches as they convene in the corner.

Lucas sits down next to her, already talking, but the only person she has eyes for is Maya, who's leaning in close to Zay.

She walks out soon after, and Riley feels so, so helpless. The world is too purple, and she is too small.

 

**/**

 

Maya is climbing out the bay window. "I have to go meet Zay," she says, phone clutched tightly in her hands, eyes darting about worriedly.

Riley watches as she leaves and wonders, for the first time, why purple.

She stands, and then sits immediately when the world spins in front of her eyes. It feels like something is trying to crawl out of her lungs, and Riley doesn't realize she's crying until she wipes at her face and her hands come away wet.

The bay window smells like lavender and Maya is gone.

 

**/**

 

They're in school, and Riley thinks if it's not her, then it must be something in these hallways.

Maya's always better on the weekends, and Riley says so, watching as her best friend slumps against the metal of her locker.

Zay appears behind her shoulder, and he presses a box of what looks like dental floss into Maya's hands before walking away.

Riley's heart is thudding dangerously hard in her chest when Maya drags a line of floss through her teeth, wincing when it stains purple.

"What was that about?"

"Nothing. It's nothing."

 

**/**

 

Lucas finds her in the library, where she's buried in mountains of encyclopedias about flowers, about diseases, about cures.

"I'm worried about Zay," he says, and when Riley looks up, she recognizes the fear in his eyes.

She sees it everyday in the mirror.

"What color?" she asks, even though she flinches at the sound of Zay's name.

Lucas sits beside her, dragging his hands through his hair. "Blue."

When Riley pushes a book toward him, all she can see are Maya's eyes.

 

**/**

 

Her dad is worried. Riley hasn't been sleeping and he can tell. She doesn't know how to tell him that Maya can't stop seeing purple and Riley can't stop seeing her.

"You alright?" he asks, hand coming to land on her shoulder.

The tie he's wearing is purple, Riley almost screams.

"I'm fine," she says, instead. The lie sticks to her throat and she swallows the guilt, pushing it down, down, down. "I'm fine."

She wishes she could say the same for Maya.

 

**/**

 

Riley finds her best friend in Central Park, and wonders how she can look at flowers without feeling like there's something clawing at her heart.

"You and Zay are getting pretty close," she says nonchalantly, pretending that it doesn't hurt when she says his name.

"I guess." Maya sifts her fingers through the petals that surround her. "He's nice to me."

And Riley can't find anything to say in reply, so she sits down and breathes in the springtime air.

Her lungs feel like they're on fire.

 

**/**

 

When Lucas comes looking for her, Riley knows what he's going to say.

Except he doesn't say it.

What he says instead: "Mine are red."

Riley turns to look at him, wonders why it took him so long to realize it.

"Figures," she says, "talk to him."

"Will you talk to her?" he shoots back, and something in Riley clicks. Flames lick at her lungs and when she exhales, her breath is tinged with yellow.

Oh.

This is what it is.

 

**/**

 

"I'm in love with her," she says out loud, testing the words. "I am in love with her."

Her reflection does nothing but stare back unblinkingly.

"I am in love with Maya."

The moment the sentence leaves her mouth, she starts coughing. Riley presses her hand to her lips, eyes wide in surprise.

When yellow roses fall into the sink, she smiles at the irony.

 

**/**

 

Riley stops seeing purple, and she almost misses it. She's not as bad as Maya is, not yet, but there's a thin layer of petals on the fire escape outside the bay window and it's slowly piling up.

She's got sunflowers in her hair and tulips in her teeth and snapdragons all over her clothes. Riley doesn't know how Maya's dealt with this for so long, because she's only been sick for a week and it _hurts_.

Lucas comes knocking at her window. He's wearing a red shirt.

She laughs dryly when she lets him in.

"It doesn't stain," he says, by way of explanation, even though she hasn't asked. Riley looks at him and he smiles crookedly at her, hydrangeas stuck between his teeth.

She doesn't ask him if he's talking about the blood or the flowers.

 

**/**

 

Zay finds her on one of her good days, when she's just spent an entire weekend with Maya instead of spitting yellow into her sink.

The backs of his hands are all blue, the color running down his arms like veins.

Riley can't look.

"Is Lucas okay?" Zay sounds tired and resigned, picking forget-me-nots from his shirt.

Riley wants to tell him to leave.

"Ask him yourself."

Zay gives her a look, and then he's out the window, probably off to find Maya.

The thought makes Riley heave, doubling over, hands on knees. Yellow covers her carpet, dusting over the books she'd left open on the floor.

There are marigolds all over her hands, chrysanthemums stuck to the roof of her mouth.

Riley presses a hand to her lips and tries her best to stop crying.

 

**/**

 

It's two in the morning and the flowers haven't stopped coming.

She doesn't know what to do.

She calls Maya.

Riley can't hold her breath long enough to stop coughing, and the words tear from her throat. "Peaches, it's _everywhere._ How do I stop it?"

Her best friend comes over and Riley feels a shot of relief sink into her stomach, warmth spreading through her gut.

"Let me call Zay," Maya says.

And oh, Riley aches.

 

**/**

 

Maya gets off the phone with Zay, and the expression she's wearing is unreadable.

Riley blinks tiredly at her, wondering how they found themselves in this mess, wondering if they're ever going to get out of it.

The room is quiet, Riley's feet are buried in yellow, and Maya is looking at her like they've never seen other before.

"Riley Matthews," she says slowly, voice soft and quiet, unassuming. "Are you in love with me?"

What else can Riley say but yes?

 

**/**

 

Summer descends upon them, and it's like spring never happened.

The flowers disappear.

Riley sits in the bay window and twirls her fingers through Maya's hair, delighting in the blush on her cheeks when she leans in to steal a kiss.

The only fire in her ribs is the warmth of her heart.

**Author's Note:**

> hello i'm back with the same fic except now it's from riley's pov, are you sick of me yet i know i am
> 
> anyway! i had lots of fun writing this concept, mostly because i forgot how much i liked writing tragic poetic prose, honestly didn't think i'd ever write rilaya fic ever again but i guess here we are
> 
>  **flowers!** (in chronological order)  
>  carnation - regret that love cannot be shared  
> lavender - growing up  
> yellow roses - friendship  
> sunflowers - adoration and loyalty  
> tulips - hopeless love  
> snapdragons -concealing something  
> forget-me-nots - a connection that lasts through time  
> marigolds - grief and jealousy  
> chrysanthenums - neglected love and sorrow
> 
> come talk to me on [tumblr](https://underwcrlds.tumblr.com)! i always love hearing from y'all, answering questions, taking requests etc.
> 
> until next time, happy halloween!


End file.
